


A Grain of Truth

by chiiyo86



Series: Binding Magic [3]
Category: Percy Jackson and the Olympians & Related Fandoms - All Media Types
Genre: Birthday Fluff, Developing Relationship, Insecurity, M/M, Polyamory, Presents, Trust Issues
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-07-06
Updated: 2019-07-06
Packaged: 2020-05-31 17:28:37
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,284
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19430701
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/chiiyo86/pseuds/chiiyo86
Summary: Nico doesn't care about celebrating his birthday, and he doesn't care whether Percy remembers it or not.





	A Grain of Truth

**Author's Note:**

> Another fic written for the Percico Summer Event 2019, in answer to the Week 2 prompt "beach" and the Week 4 prompts "In The Arms of The Ocean" and "Moon." Since it's a Percico event I'm focusing on the Percy/Nico side of the equation, but this fic is also part of my [Binding Magic](https://archiveofourown.org/series/1096287) 'verse where Percy ends up dating both Nico and Annabeth - you don't need to know anything else to understand this fic. The fic takes place before the epilogue in [Binding Magic](https://archiveofourown.org/works/13494930), the first story.

Nico had been ten the last time someone had properly celebrated his birthday. He and Bianca had been boarders at one of the many schools they’d gone through after leaving the Lotus Hotel—Nico couldn’t remember the name of the school, just that it hadn’t been Westover Hall, the one they’d attended when they’d met Percy and Annabeth. Bianca had snuck into Nico’s room at the boys’ dorms, bringing him a piece of cake that she’d stolen from the kitchen, with a single candle. They’d whispered a ‘happy birthday’ song together, trying not to wake up Nico’s roommates, and Nico had blown the candle. Bianca had held him tight against her, kissing the top of his head. Nico hadn’t really realized it at the time but looking back on it, he understood that she’d been scared, probably wondering what was going to happen to them. 

After Bianca’s death, Nico hadn’t felt like celebrating his birthday anymore. The only present he’d gotten was Jules-Albert, the zombie chauffeur that his father had given him for his thirteenth birthday in a strange burst of fatherly affection. So it came as a surprise when a few days before his fifteenth birthday, as Nico was having breakfast in Hades’ palace in the Underworld, his father slid something at him across the table and said, “Here, take this.”

Nico warily examined the object, a small black bottle shaped like a drop of water and capped with a cork. “What is it?”

“Your birthday present,” his father said impatiently, as though it should have been obvious.

“My birthday isn’t today.”

“I know that, but I’m assuming you’ll want to celebrate it with your new boyfriend.”

At the word ‘boyfriend’ blood rushed to Nico’s face. He didn’t know how Hades knew, since the relationship had only started a month-and-a-half ago and Nico hadn’t talked about it. But, of course, when your father is a god you kind of have to assume that he knows _everything_. He just hadn’t mentioned it to Nico before. 

“I don’t celebrate my birthday,” Nico murmured. “Percy’s busy anyway.”

Nico wasn’t really expecting a birthday present from Percy—he wasn’t even sure that Percy knew when his birthday was, and these days Percy was entirely focused on passing the DSTOMP, the entrance exam to New Rome University. They didn’t see each other very often and sometimes it felt like they were barely dating. Not that Nico would have known what dating someone was like, obviously. He had moments when he wondered, in one of his dark fits of jealousy, whether Annabeth saw more of him. She probably did, because she was passing the exam too and they must be studying together. It made sense; she was Percy’s first love, his greatest love, whom he’d gone through countless adventures with, had jumped into Tartarus for, had clung to while they traversed the pit together. Nico was just a later addition, and he and Percy most likely wouldn’t last. Nico often told himself that he should enjoy what he had while he had it, but he’d never been very good at living in the present. 

“What’s in the bottle?” he asked his father.

“A few tears of Aletheia,” Hades said.

The goddess of truth? Then it meant that—

“A drop of this in someone’s drink, and they have no choice but to answer truthfully any of your questions for twenty minutes.” Hades loomed closer, his large silhouette casting a long shadow over Nico. His burning eyes pinned Nico with their intensity and the ever-present whispers of the evil spirits sewn into his robes got louder for a moment. “I don’t trust that boy, Percy Jackson. His father doesn’t wish us well.”

“He’s your brother,” Nico said. 

“Exactly!” Hades exclaimed. His booming voice alerted the hellhounds that lounged at his feet, making them raise their heads and give a few sharp barks. “No one can hurt you like family. We’re having a truce right now, but you should never let your guard down. So if you want to know that you can trust the boy Jackson for sure, then a drop of Aletheia’s tears will help you achieve that.”

“I can’t do that,” Nico said, shaking his head and pushing the bottle toward his father. “It’s wrong. I can’t break his trust like this.”

“This is my birthday present to you,” Hades said. “Use it at your discretion but take it with you. You can’t know whether you’ll change your mind.”

Nico didn’t touch the bottle as he finished his breakfast and it just sat there, a constant temptation that he couldn’t help sliding glances at. When he was done eating, he quickly pocketed it. He wasn’t going to use it, of course not, but maintaining a connection to his father was always like walking on a tightrope and he didn’t want to upset him. 

He went back to Camp Half-Blood after that and on the morning of his birthday, he woke up having honestly forgotten that today was the day. When he got an I-M from Hazel, he assumed at first that she merely wanted to check on him. 

“Happy birthday, big brother!” Hazel squealed, her golden eyes sparkling in the early morning light—it was barely 6:30 am in California. 

“Oh, uh,” Nico said, rubbing the back of his head. He’d been getting ready for sword practice and was alone in the privacy of cabin thirteen, but he still felt embarrassed, wondering if anyone had heard Hazel from outside of the cabin. “Thank you.”

“You forgot that today was your birthday, didn’t you?”

“No, I—Well, yeah. I mean, I knew it was coming up because Father gave me a present a few days ago, but I’d lost track of the date.”

“What did Father give you?” Hazel asked.

Was it jealousy in Hazel’s voice? She didn’t have the relationship that Nico had with their father, having only talked to him a couple of times. It was for her own protection, so that Hades—or rather, Pluto—could keep turning a blind eye to the fact that he’d let his own daughter escape the Underworld and hadn’t tried to drag her back, but it couldn’t be easy for her. Nico regretted bringing up the present, and he didn’t want to tell Hazel what it was because this was another uncomfortable thought. He was keeping the bottle hidden under the narrow mattress of his bunk bed instead of throwing it away like he’d originally meant to. He tried to tell himself that he just didn’t want to act careless with a gift from his father—it was never a good idea to dismiss boons from the gods, even when they were your own parent—but he knew deep down that this wasn’t the real reason. The truth was that he couldn’t get rid of the temptation that kept pricking him at the back of his mind, and he knew that it made him a bad person. 

“Nico?”

“Oh, sorry. I was thinking—”

“Have you heard from Percy yet?”

Nico hadn’t been thinking about Percy, but the question made him tense. “No, but it’s still early. And he has a lot on his mind, so I don’t even care if he’s forgotten it. I don’t usually celebrate my birthday. I haven’t—” He shut up before he mentioned Bianca, knowing that this was another sore subject for Hazel.

“I’m sure he’ll give you a call soon, at least. But don’t move! Frank wants to wish you a happy birthday too. I’ll go get him.”

Nico wasn’t sure if Frank really wanted to wish Nico a happy birthday or if Hazel was making him do it, but if it was the latter then he was pretty gracious about it. Nico didn’t care whether Frank liked him or not; he only cared that he loved Hazel and made her happy. 

To his increasing surprise, Nico received several other calls throughout the day, from Reyna and then from Jason and Piper. Even at camp he got a ‘happy birthday’ from Will Solace and a pat on the back from Leo Valdez. It made him feel flustered every time, embarrassed but in a mostly good way, except that with each new person wishing him a happy birthday, the desire to hear it from Percy deepened. If everyone had ignored him, then it was would have been easy for Nico to pretend that today was no different from any other day; as it was, he only grew more morose as the day progressed, more resentful. Sure, Nico had never told Percy when his birthday was, but Percy could have asked. Maybe he hadn’t asked because he simply didn’t care, because being with Nico had lost its shine already and Percy just hadn’t gotten around to telling him.

“Drachma for your thoughts?”

Nico’s only concession to being startled was his fingers closing around the handle of his sword. This was just Annabeth—she wasn’t a threat, so he relaxed, even though she was the last person he wanted to see when he was stewing in bitterness.

“Happy birthday,” she said, smiling as she sat down next to him. “Percy hasn’t forgotten, by the way. He’s just gotten caught up in a few things. He’ll tell you all about it himself.”

“Why do you assume I was thinking about Percy?” Nico asked, defensiveness surging in him. 

“You’re sitting by the lake, looking at the water. Believe me, I know.”

Nico hoped that Annabeth didn’t know that he’d been sitting there for a few hours, eyes on the patterns of glistening reflections from the sun on the rippling water. He didn’t particularly like the lake and he hated getting wet, but Annabeth was right, gods damn her. Being there made him feel closer to Percy. 

“Here’s for you,” Annabeth said, dropping a rectangular package in his lap.

Nico stared at it uncomprehendingly for a few long seconds. No one except for his father had given him a birthday present. He hadn’t expected anything, except maybe from Percy.

“Open it,” Annabeth said, nudging him in the ribs with her elbow. “I hope you like it.”

Nico carefully peeled off the pieces of tape holding the dark blue wrapping paper together. He couldn’t remember opening a wrapped present in… maybe ever. If the small gifts that Bianca got for him were wrapped, they were very crudely so, and Hades hadn’t wrapped his zombie chauffeur or his truth potion. Nico’s memories of celebrating birthdays with his mother were still very hazy. Something about slowly opening Annabeth’s present made Nico’s heart beat faster in anticipation.

“You’re kind of the opposite of Percy when it comes to opening presents,” Annabeth said, a lilt of laughter in her voice. “He would have already torn it open.”

Nico didn’t know that, because he’d never given Percy any present. Annabeth knew a million things about Percy that Nico didn’t, because she and Percy had dated longer and had been friends for years before that. A lump grew in Nico’s throat at the thought, but he swallowed and tried to ignore it as he finished opening Annabeth’s present.

It was a book, entitled _‘The History of Death: Burial Customs and Funeral Rites, from the Ancient World to Modern Times_.’ For a moment, a snarky comment was on Nico’s lips— _give a book about death to the weird death kid, how original_ —but the book genuinely looked interesting and it would have been a mean and ungrateful thing to say. Nico had often formed mean, angry thoughts about Annabeth in the past, first when she’d started dating Percy and then when Nico had started dating him too. Meanwhile, she’d gone through the trouble of finding him a present he might like for his birthday, something she didn’t have to do.

“Thank you,” he said. “It looks great.”

“Good, I’m glad you like it.” Annabeth leaned toward him slowly, enough for him to be warned that she was about to give him a hug. “You’ll hear from Percy very soon,” she said to his ear, her arms around his shoulders. “I promise.”

Nico wanted to say ‘ _I don’t care_ ’, but he knew that he couldn’t fool Annabeth on that topic. 

“Thank you,” he said again, murmuring it into her hair.

“Okay,” Annabeth said, standing up. “I need to get back to studying.”

“Oh, right. Why did you come to camp anyway?”

She gave him a strange look. “I came to give you your birthday present, stupid.”

Nico watched her walk away, feeling indeed very stupid. It hadn’t occurred to him that Annabeth would tear herself from her studies just to give him his present on the day of his birthday. 

Percy’s call came about an hour later. “Happy birthday!” he shouted through the rainbow, loud enough to make Nico flinch. “Man, I’m so sorry I didn’t call you earlier! I had totally forgotten about a paper I was supposed to turn in, well, yesterday, and then I was waiting for a delivery, but they got the address wrong so I had to run across town to—Anyway, it doesn’t matter. Happy birthday, Nico.”

The accompanying bright smile made Nico’s insides grow warm. “Thank you,” he said. 

“Are you doing anything tonight?”

“Doing… No, not really. Why?”

“Meet me at a beach in Montauk. It’s on the south shore, at the tip of Long Island. I’ll describe it to you. Be there at midnight.”

“That’s after curfew.”

Percy snorted. “Don’t tell me you care about curfew. Who’s going to stop you from shadow-traveling?”

He was right, and Nico didn’t know what contrary impulse made him want to be difficult about meeting with Percy when he hadn’t seen him in over a week. “Okay, I’ll meet you there. Describe the place to me in as many details as you can.”

Nico had the rest of the afternoon to mull over this… was this a date? Percy and he had never done _dates_ before. They’d hung out at Camp Half-Blood and at Percy’s place, but even with his vague knowledge of relationships Nico knew that those times didn’t count as dates. A midnight rendezvous on the beach? That sounded a lot more intimate than their usual. Romantic, even. Thinking the word ‘romantic’ immediately had Nico’s face burning and his hands sweating. Should he dress up or something? His wardrobe was pretty limited and all in the same style—if he wanted to try something different he could always borrow a Camp Half-Blood t-shirt, as Chiron constantly tried to make him do, but that wasn’t dressing up, just dressing differently. In the end, he just took another shower and tried to comb his hair, mostly in vain, and then waited for midnight sitting on the edge of his bed, torn between eagerness and agitation. 

He’d meant to grab a couple of hours of sleep before he went, but he was too nervous for sleep and too afraid that he wouldn’t wake up in time. At midnight, he stood up from his bed like a shot, and was about to grab the shadows when the memory of his father giving him the tears of Aletheia popped up in his mind. His eyes were drawn to his bed, where the bottle was still hidden. He knew that taking it with him for his midnight date with Percy was a terrible idea. He hated himself for having it. But before he had the time to talk himself out of it, he’d already moved to the bed and extracted the bottle from under the mattress. It was 0:02 and he didn’t want to make Percy wait, so he just shoved the bottle in his jeans pocket and promised himself that it would stay there.

Wind whipped at his face when he stepped out of the shadow at his destination point. The air smelled salty and the waves roared as they rolled on the beach. A full moon hung on the midnight black sky, its pale glow illuminating the beach. Stars swarmed around it in twinkling clusters; Nico was so caught up looking at them that he almost didn’t see Percy come up to him.

“Nice sky, right?” Percy said.

“Yeah,” Nico said in a breath. “It’s beautiful.”

“Glad you think so.”

Percy took his hand and for a few seconds just held it, brushing his thumb over Nico’s knuckles, before pulling Nico to him and kissing him. 

“Happy birthday,” he murmured, the warmth of his breath tickling Nico’s lips. 

“You already wished me my birthday.”

“Yeah, but it’s not the same to do it in person.”

“It’s past midnight, so it’s not even my birthday anymore,” Nico pointed out.

Percy raised an eyebrow at him. “Yeah, sure, if we want to be overly literal. I just thought that, I don’t know, midnight on the beach would be kind of romantic, but if you want to shoot down all my efforts—” He jutted out his bottom lip in an exaggerated pout and Nico couldn’t help laughing at his antics.

“Stop it, I’m not buying that look on you,” he said, giving Percy’s shoulder a playful shove. Percy was still holding his other hand and Nico was torn between wanting to snatch it back and being afraid that Percy would let go of him. “So, what’s so special about this beach?”

“My mom and I used to come here every summer. It’s where my parents met and had their summer fling.”

“Does your dad like to, um, hang around here?” Nico couldn’t help casting a nervous look around, worried that he would see Poseidon himself emerge from the foaming waves.

“You don’t have to look so freaked out,” Percy said, laughing. “I don’t think that he comes here more often than any other beach, now. I just love this place. See that house over there?” Nico followed the direction of Percy’s fingers, beyond the undulating dunes to a small cabin shaped like a shoe box. “My mom always rented it for the two of us. Some of my best childhood memories happened here. We haven’t been back in a few years.”

Percy sounded nostalgic, his gaze lost to some inner contemplation, maybe the memories of those happy times with his mother. Moonlight was reflected in his eyes in fragments of silver. From what little Nico knew about Percy’s childhood, it hadn’t always been fun, but Percy was such a force of nature that it was an easy thing to forget sometimes. On an impulse, Nico leaned in and kissed him. 

“Hey there.” Percy looked surprised but pleased—self-consciousness suddenly overcame Nico, because he was rarely the one who initiated things between them, but he stopped himself from pulling away. “Sorry I spaced out on you,” Percy said. “I actually didn’t come empty-handed. What do you want first, cake or present?”

“Uh, I don’t know, present first, I guess?”

“Excellent choice, sir! Give me a second.”

Percy had to release Nico’s hand to go and rummage inside a backpack that sat on the sand a few feet away from them. Percy’s back was on him, so Nico couldn’t see what he was getting out of the bag. When Percy straightened up, he kept one of his hands hidden behind his back.

“Ready for it?” he asked with a mischievous smile. 

“Will you give me my present already?” Nico said, trying to sound annoyed when in truth his heart was pounding. 

He didn’t want to get too excited in case he was disappointed and hurt Percy’s feelings by not being able to hide his reaction, but this would be the first time he’d receive a gift from Percy. It felt like a milestone of some sort and Nico didn’t want to ruin it by being weird about it. What sort of gift should one expect from the person they’re in a relationship with—the same thing that they would get as a friend? Nico didn’t have any experience with either, except for Annabeth’s gift from this morning. Was it different between two guys? Percy cleared his throat to call for Nico’s attention, then withdrew his hand from behind his back. 

“Happy birthday, Nico. Again. Even if it’s not really your birthday anymore.”

The package Percy held was small enough to fit in the open palm of his hand. Moonlight washed away colors, but the wrapping paper looked dark. Nico took it gingerly and proceeded to open it with as much care as he had done with Annabeth’s present.

Sand crunched when Percy’s moved his weight from one foot to the other. “You know you can just tear it op—”

“Who’s opening that present, you or me?”

“You, of course. Okay, fine. Do it your way. Your excruciatingly slow way.”

Under the wrapping paper was a small black box, the kind people put jewelry in—like rings. Nico’s only experience with engagement rings was from movies, but his mind still immediately jumped to it before he pushed it back ruthlessly. This was a ridiculous thought; even as a symbolic gesture, they hadn’t even been together two months and they were both teenagers. There was just no way—

“Gods, Nico, you’re killing me here. Open it already!”

“All right, all right!”

Nico opened the box. There wasn’t a ring in it, but a silver pendant on a silver chain. It had an octagon shape and ribbed edges, like a coin, and was engraved with a picture of a skull that had two shinbones between its teeth and the words ‘MEMENTO’ and ‘MORI’ bracketing it.

“‘Memento mori’ is—”

“Latin for ‘remember you have to die,’” Nico said. “I know.”

“Right. Of course you know, sorry. Look at the reverse side.”

Nico turned the coin around and saw that a different skull was engraved on the other side, this one decorated with patterns of flowers and spiderwebs, like one of those Mexican sugar skulls made for the Day of the Dead. The words ‘MEMENTO VIVERE’ were engraved under the skull on the left side of the coin. _Remember that you have to live._

“So, do you like it?” Percy asked. “Do you hate it? Say something.”

Nico’s eyes were fixed the pendant, but he could hear the rhythmic _tap, tap, tap_ of Percy thrumming his fingers against his leg. He released a slow breath, then said, “I love it.”

“You do? Oh, thank the gods. Because I agonized for days over this—like, I thought that maybe you wouldn’t want another skull jewelry, or that it was too cliché, but it looked so nice and it just _fit_ you, and I—”

“Hey, Percy.”

“What?”

Nico slid a hand behind the back of Percy’s head and drew him in for a kiss. He wasn’t good at expressing his feelings with words so he poured his appreciation into the kiss, sucking on Percy’s lower lip until he could hear Percy’s breathing hitch.

“Okay, so you liked it,” Percy said a little breathlessly once they’d separated. “Good, good. Want some cake, now?” His hand lingered on the side of Nico’s jaw and Nico was getting dizzy from all the touching. 

“Sure,” he managed to say.

He put his pendant around his neck and they sat down on the sand. Percy got a plastic container, a bottle of Coke, napkins, plastic cups and spoons out from his bag.

“Shit,” he cursed as he turned the bag upside down. “I thought I’d taken candles but I can’t find them. I’m sorry, I—”

“It’s fine. I don’t need candles. I don’t know how many I should put, anyway, since I’m technically almost eighty years old. Let’s have some cake. Did you mom make it?”

“No, I made it.” Nico’s skepticism must have shown, because Percy added indignantly, “Hey, I can bake! Okay, Mom supervised, but I did everything by myself. Don’t look so worried, or I swear I’ll dump you in the ocean.”

“Eating cake under threat of drowning. This is already the most memorable birthday I’ve had.”

“You’re so ungrateful. Next year you’re getting store-bought cake.”

 _Next year._ Percy had said it so easily, as if he couldn’t imagine anything different. Trying to make himself focus on the present moment and not let his mind drift toward unpleasant musings, Nico took a bite of Percy’s cake. It was standard chocolate cake, a little dry but edible. Percy could have bought a cake or let his mother make one, but he’d taken the time to do this for Nico. The thought made Nico’s heart swell ten times its normal size and he took another few bites to quash the urge to cry. 

“You don’t look about to drop dead and you’re still eating it, so I assume it’s not too bad,” Percy said. 

“Maybe I—” _love you_ “—like you enough to make that sacrifice.”

“Will you have a drink to wash down the cake, you jerk?” Percy asked, holding out the soda bottle he’d brought.

“Yes, please.”

Percy poured two glasses and then put the bottle back in his bag before handing out a cup to Nico. The gesture reminded Nico of the bottle that weighed down his left jeans pocket and he had a hard time swallowing his mouthful of cake. One drop in Percy’s cup and Nico would know exactly what Percy thought of him, of their relationship and its future. 

_Don’t do it. You’re going to ruin everything._

Nico drew in a sharp breath. “Is this where you learned how to swim?”

“Actually, yes, or at least that’s what my mom tells me, because I started swimming really early and I can’t remember it.”

“Of course you did.” Nico shoved the rest of his piece of cake in his mouth and drank from his cup to help it go down. “Have you ever brought Annabeth here?”

He regretted the words as soon as he’d said them. Why did he have to make it awkward? This was nice moment—Percy had given him a lovely gift, had baked him a cake, had brought him to a moonlit beach. Now Nico sounded like a jealous, ungrateful dick and Percy was going to be mad at him.

He felt a hand wrap itself around his fingers. “Yes, I brought Annabeth here,” Percy said, his voice soft, almost a whisper. “Because this place is special to me, and I want people who are special to me to see it. Hey, Nico, look at me.” He put a hand on Nico’s cheek, and Nico didn’t have much choice but to turn his head and look at him. “I’ve missed you. A lot. And I know it’s my own fault, I’ve been—”

“You were busy.”

“Yeah, but I shouldn’t have let myself get so overwhelmed that I didn’t have time for you. We’ve—we’ve just started this and I really want to make it work.”

Nico’s pounding heart threatened to jump in his throat and out of his mouth. The sound of his own breathing was deafening. His skin tingled where Percy’s warm hand touched his cheek but he couldn’t make himself lean into it. He wanted to believe Percy. He knew that Percy had no reason to lie to him, that he could just break up with him if he’d gotten bored with their relationship, that he wouldn’t have started the relationship in the first place unless he had genuine feelings for Nico. He _knew_ all this, but the treacherous part of his brain wouldn’t quite believe it. And now he had a way to force it to shut up. _One drop and you’d know for certain. You wouldn’t have to keep waiting for the rug to be pulled from under your feet._

Nico wrenched himself out of Percy’s grasp and scrambled to his feet, then marched toward the sea.

“Nico? What’s wrong? Hey, where are you going?”

Nico heard footsteps on the sand and started walking faster, then running, because Percy’s legs were longer than his and he didn’t want Percy to catch up with him just yet. He reached the waves that were licking the shore and water splashed around him, wetting his jeans. He thrust a hand in his pocket as he kept running; when he got water up to his knees he had to slow down, but he plowed forward until it was up to his thighs. He hurled the bottle of Aletheia’s tears as hard as he could and heard a faraway plop, then he breathed deeply for a moment, feeling his heartbeat slow down. _Sorry, dad._

“What was that?”

Nico almost jumped out of his skin, because Percy hadn’t made a sound as he walked into the water. “I had to get rid of something,” he said, trying hard to sound casual.

“Right now? While we were having a moment?”

“Yeah, right now. It was an Underworld emergency.” To Nico’s confusion, Percy started laughing. “What?”

“Nothing, it’s just—” Percy hugged him from behind, arms around his waist, muffling his laughter against Nico’s shoulder. “Half of the time, I don’t know what’s going through your mind.”

“And that’s funny?”

“I like that about you. I never know what to expect.”

Sea water had soaked Nico’s jeans but he couldn’t feel the discomfort anymore, not with Percy pressed against his back and Percy’s breath hot on the skin of his neck. His new silver pendant was a cool weight on his chest. He was still calming down from the rush of adrenaline that had just hit him, but Percy’s presence was so soothing Nico thought that if could bottle that feeling and sell it, he would probably make a fortune. 

“Wanna go for a swim?” Percy asked.

“I’d hate that,” Nico replied, but when Percy tugged on his hand he let himself be dragged, like the lovestruck idiot he was. 

The water was cold, but that didn’t bother him much. He just didn’t like the waves crashing against him and splashing his face. He could feel the current pull at him and it was only Percy holding his hand that kept him from turning around and walking out of the water.

“I’m completely drenched,” he complained. “I’m going to take forever to dry.”

“Not with my help. It’ll take me a second to dry you. Come on, let’s dive under water. You don’t have to worry about holding your breath, I’ll make an oxygen bubble around your head.”

Nico was a poor swimmer, but with Percy guiding him it didn’t feel like wrestling with water the way it usually did. He would have thought that his clothes would weigh him down, but once they’d dived in, he couldn’t feel them at all. It was dark underwater, the moonlight barely strong enough to penetrate the water. As Percy wrapped his arms around Nico, tangling their legs together, Nico could only just make out his face and the halo of dark hair that floated around it. Water supported him as much as Percy’s arms around him, and its embrace was more comfortable than Nico would have expected.

“How do you like it?” Percy asked.

Their chests were pressed together and Nico could feel Percy’s heart thud in his chest, an echo to Nico’s own heartbeat, just slightly out of sync. “I don’t hate it as much as I thought I would.”

“Well, that’s a good start,” Percy murmured, his mouth a hair’s breadth from Nico’s.

They’d never kissed underwater before—Percy’s lips felt cooler, tasted saltier, and here in his element, his body thrummed with power. The eerie diffuse moonlight that bathed them and the absolute silence that reigned gave a dreamlike feeling to the scene. Nico always felt like he might be dreaming when he kissed Percy.

He hoped he’d be allowed to keep on dreaming for a long time.

**Author's Note:**

> I changed a line in [Birthday Boy](https://archiveofourown.org/works/15564543), the second fic in that series, just so that it would include the pendant Percy gave Nico in this fic. This pendant actually exists and can be bought, by the way! Same with the book that Annabeth offered Nico.


End file.
